Characters:
- Don Gonzalo (The Gallant Lover)
- Dona Laura (The Silver Maiden)
- Petra (Laura’s maid)
- Juanito (Don’s Servant)
Summary:
‘A Sunny Morning’ is a short, one-act play by Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero, two renowned Spanish dramatists and brothers. It is a romantic comedy which presents the story of Don Gonzalo and Dona Laura who, loved each other in their youth but were forced to separate in life. In the play on a sunny autumn morning in a quiet corner of a park in Madrid, Dona Laura, a beautiful, white-haired lady of about seventy, refined in appearance, is feeding cereals to pigeons in the park. Don Gonzalo, a gentleman of seventy, gouty and impatient, enters. Their servants Petra, Dona Laura’s maid, and Juanito, Don Gonzalo's servant who have been escorting them, go nearby. The conversation between the two seventy-year-olds begins sarcastically, with each accusing the other of intruding on their private space. Don Gonzalo complains the priests have taken his bench and says Dona Laura is a “Senile old lady! She ought to be at home knitting and counting her beads.” She finds him “an ill-natured old man!” He resigns himself to “sit on the bench with the old lady.”
A pinch of snuff helps to clear their heads, and they find something in common with alternating sneezes of three times each. The snuff made peace between them.
They begin to crosstalk back and forth in a more friendly manner. Then Don Gonzalo after asking her permission reads out loud from a book of poems from the poet Campamor. As they converse, Gonzalo says that he is from Valencia and to his surprise, Laura reveals that she is from Maricela where she lived in a villa. Gonzalo is startled by the revelation and he says that he knows a woman named Laura Llorente who lived in a villa there, who was perhaps the most beautiful he had ever seen. Both Laura and Gonzalo realise each other to be former lovers. But they pretend not to reveal their identities. Laura lies to him that the girl was her best friend. Gonzalo tell her that the fellow was his cousin.
In her youthful days, Dona Laura was known in her locality as ‘The Silver Maiden’. She was fair as the lily, with jet black hair and black eyes. She was like a dream. She was in love with Gonzalo, the gallant lover. He used to pass by on horseback every morning through the rose garden and toss up a bouquet of flowers to her balcony which she caught. On his way back in the afternoon she would toss the flowers back to him. But Laura’s parents wanted to marry her off to a merchant whom she disliked. When the girl was to be married off to a merchant, the lover duels (fights) with him wounding him badly and being scared of the consequences of a duel with a person highly regarded in that locality runs off to Madrid. Even though he tried to communicate with Laura through letters, all attempts failed. She waits for her lover to return but when he does not, marries the merchant after two years.
Now Laura and Gonzalo devise stories of their own deaths. According to Gonzalo, the young Gonzalo had to leave his place as he was involved in a fight with a merchant, the suitor of Laura. Then he joined the army and went to Africa where he met with a glorious death. The old Laura reveals that not finding her lover, the young and beautiful Laura committed suicide.
But, in reality, after three months Gonzalo ran off to Paris with a ballet dancer and Laura, on the other hand, got married after two years. Both realise that they are lying but pretend to be unaware. When the play ends, they agree to meet at the park again, still not acknowledging what they both know to be true.
The usual reunion does not take place. They are both unwilling to disclose their real identity. Laura would like Gonzalo to think of her as the black eyed girl tossing flowers at him. Gonzalo would prefer to be the horse man who passed beneath her window every day. This play is a blend of romance and comedy.
REFERENCES:
Quintero, S., & Quntero, J. A. (2020). A Sunny Morning. In English Grade XI (pp. 302-313). Kathmandu, Nepal: Curriculum Development Centre.
Haniel, S. U. (2019, 9 14). A SUNNY MORNING, Sarafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quinter. Retrieved from Syed Usman Haniel: http://www.syedusman.com/a-sunny-morning-summary/
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